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I've been wanting this for a long time, and I think its now safe to say, Lulu has excepted Will as a member of the family. It's not that she was ever mean or skitish around him, it was more that she was always super jealous. She has now become a lot more tolerant of Will as he has gotten older. I'd say that this is due to two reasons. The first being that she realizes that he's not going away, and the second that Will has gotten a lot sweeter and softer around his big sis. Gone are the days of pulling her hair, ears, and tail (though an occasion poke to the eye still happens, it did tonight), and now are the times of gentle rubbing of her back and belly and whispering in her ear that she's a "Goud gurl." With Will getting older, it also seems now that he feels a responsibility for taking care of her. He jumps at an opportunity to fill her dog bowl and feed her a treat while making her shake or stay. He hates when she is left inside when we are out and makes it a point that we let her out to join in the fun. He even likes to let her in on a little space on the bed in the mornings. He knows that he runs the roost and that its okay once in a while to let her get some attention, because he knows she won't steal his thunder. Hopefully he'll have this type of compassion for his parents when they need taking care of!
This never would have happened before.
Copy cat, or copy dog in this case.
As most of you know, Ben's parents retired at the end of May and moved up to Whitehall, Michigan to be closer to their parents and families, and to spend their golden years at their favorite place in the entire world, the Pierce family cottage in Pentwater.
It still seems so weird that they no longer live here in Lafayette, and I still don't think it has truly set in with us yet that they have really moved as Ben and I still tend to wonder if we are doing dinner with Grammy and A-Paw this week, then quickly realize probably not considering they are 18 hours away...For now it still seems as though they are on their yearly summer vacation, but once Fall comes around, I think reality will finally set in for all of us.
Though it's been hard, we have already seen Grammy and Apaw once this summer for Carrie's wedding (post to come) and will be going up to Michigan at the end of the summer to see them, which we are definitely looking forward to. And we all know that they will take advantage of having children who live in the South once the snow starts to fall.
Just wanted to write this post to say we miss ya'll so much already and hope your retirement is everything you dreamed it would be. Enjoy this time in your life together! We love and miss you!
Will loves his Grammy and A-Paw!
Just a sweet photo of our little boy. What can we say, every little kid has his or her own speaking quirks. Though some can represent developmental issues, others are just hilarious things that our children pick up from their parents. For instance, our niece Elena responds to everything you tell her or ask her with a quick "What?!?" Obviously she picked that little quirk up from a household that is always full of excitement and tends to be hard to hear at times. With the noise comes a lot of people responding to conversations with "What?"Will's speaking quirk is a bit different. Instead of saying "What?", a phrase that is used heavily in the English language, Will tends to lean on the phrase "Ah man." Let me clarify that he does say many many other things, but when confronted with a problem or if he's corrected for doing something, an "Ah man." is always his go to saying.We've been struggling to get Will to identify his colors. He seems to know everything else but them. Either he's stubborn or he just doesn't quite understand the concept yet. Regardless, up until very recently, he get's a lot of them wrong when we ask him which color we're holding. Just the other night I had a blue block in my hand and Will told me it was green. I responded by telling him that the color was actually blue. He then proceeded to take the block out of my hand and said, "Blue block. Ah man." This happened with almost every color. "Yellow block. Ah man." "Red block. Ah man." etc. etc. etc.Thinking back, he must have picked it up from me while we play sports. Whenever he misses the ball or has a poor throw I must say a lot of "Ah man." If that's the worst thing he picks up (fat chance), I think we'll be alright.
Such a goof ball!
Not a very long post, but topic is well worth being noted. Lately Will has been talking up a storm, and one of our favorite things to hear him say are people's names, especially his own. When asked, "What is your name?" He sweetly responds with "Will-wum Poose" and as you can imagine, while saying his last name his little lips pucker out so far.
While I'm on the topic, I will try to do the best I can to show how he says everyone else's names:
- Me: Momma, Mom, or Kitty
- Ben: Dada, Daddy, Baen (with a twang of course)
- Nonna: Nonna (pretty easy to say)
- Poppa: Poppa Don or Poppa Smooch...It's funny to me that the man who gives everyone their famous nicknames now has his own.
- Missy: Beebee or Mitty
- Corey: Awncle Cahwey
- Stacey: Tatey
- Philip: Awncle Phi-wip
- Eli: E-yi
- Ezra: E-yee
- Elena: Lena
- Grammy: Ammy
- Grandpa: Ampa
- Carrie: Tear-ee
- Ryan: Wyan
- Lulu: Ulu
Lately Will has become our shadow and honestly, I can't speak for Krissy, it feels more like he's become primarily mine. When I get home from work in the evening or if it's the weekend, if there's stuff for me to do, I'm taking care of it, and my BIG helper is right along with me.Since we've been working in the yard a lot lately, Will has been following me around copying everything I do with his own shovel, wheel barrel, and his version of work gloves. His are of course decorated with Lighting McQueen from Disney's "Cars" movie. I love my big helper, even when he gets in the way or sprays me with water while taking care of our plants. He's helped us put together his swing set with a screw driver and he's even gone as far as to help us pick-up the laundry. The best is the way he even copies the way I hold my broom when I'm sweeping out the garage!One of his recent helping obsessions though is with taking out the garbage! I guess we should be really pleased about this while he's volunteering to help without being asked and without the incentive of an allowance. I can't even get out the door with a garbage bag without him running up to me screaming to grab part of the bag or to take it out himself. This has even gone as far to include rolling out and bringing in the garbage cans. He has to have a hand in everything we do, no matter how big or small, and we're enjoying it all!
Helping Dada by taking out the trash.
This kid is a hard worker!
It came and went like a flash, but we enjoyed every second of it. Yep, Will is officially two years old! Insert happy and sad tears here...Where has the time gone? It all started out on Friday, April 1st, which of course was his official birthday. The entire day was filled with phone calls from family and friends wishing our sweet baby a wonderful and happy day, and of course I got plenty of special time with my boy just playing together at the house. That night, Ben, myself, and Will did our regular Friday night Lent ritual and had cheese pizza together. Throughout the evening Will got visits from Nonna and Poppa who helped (or watched us) put his new swingset together and brought cake and sang happy birthday to our little man. Although it didn't get completed until Sunday, the swingset was a hit and has been played on daily since. Once they left, Grammy, Grandpa, Aunt Carrie, and soon to be Uncle Ryan came by for yet another rendition of Happy Birthday, cake, and gifts galore. He thoroughly enjoyed opening his Toy Story presents and train set. Before we knew it, Friday was over and Saturday, the day of his party, arrived. As space and parking is an issue at our house, we decided to have his birthday party at Missy and Philips. It lasted from 1-3, and guess what the theme was??? That's right...Toy Story! There were Toy Story banners, table cloths, confetti, balloons, cake, and of course a Toy Story Fun Jump. Will enjoyed jumping as did all of his little friends.By the time cake and presents rolled around it was nearly 2:30 and a much needed break from all of the jumping and playing. Will definitely enjoyed the cake and especially enjoyed opening presents wanting to play with each one immediately. And soon after, the Toy Story themed Birthday bash of 2011 came to a close. To sum it all up, it was a perfect day for our little man and he had an absolute blast! We would like to send a few thank yous to everyone. Thank you to all of our Lafayette friends (old and young) who came over to celebrate this special day with us. Also, thank you to the Byrd family for traveling from Alexandria, LA and also thank you to Aunt Carrie and Soon to be Uncle Ryan for driving all the way from Dallas to see your nephew on his special day. We'd like to give a big shout out and thanks to Missy and Philip for graciously opening and offering their home for the party. Most importantly thanks to Nonna and Poppa, Grammy and Grandpa and both of our families for continuing to love sweet Will unconditionally and for spoiling him rotten...What a blessing it is that we all live so close and get to share Will's special milestones together!Since I am starting to sound like I'm giving an acceptance speech I will stop here and end simply with...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, OUR SWEET WILL, OUR REASON FOR LIVING. MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW AND LOOK FORWARD TO SHARING MANY MORE BIRTHDAYS WITH YOU BUBS!
Attemping to peek at his presents.
The kid loves Barney!
Party Pic with Nonna and Poppa!
One year later... still a pig!
Two dorks in their hats.
Will and future Uncle Ryan checking out the sandbox toys.
All smiles with his Buzz Lightyear camera.
While many people in other parts of the country are still sitting in snow, Will had his first few swims of the year over the weekend. On Saturday, Will was invited across the street for a swim date with his new friend Ava, who is 19 months old. Of course, he was more interested in all of her cool toys than the pool, but he slid into the pool a few times. Ava and Will have become fast friends, hanging out in the afternoons, but sadly they are trying to sell their home and move into a bigger place, so we won't live as close anymore. At least we'll still be in the area so they can continue to play together. On Monday, Will had another swim date at our house, this time with Elena. The water was a little chilly, but somehow they managed to get over it and swim like fish. He especially enjoyed putting the slide from his swingset in the pool and sliding quickly into the water. We definitely have a swimming baby on our hands, which means that lessons will be right around the corner. Since our little guy loves the water so much, Ben and I (mainly I) have contemplated getting one of those big blue pools to put in the backyard. While I know they are not the most aesthetically pleasing things in the world, Will would definitely enjoy it (as would we) and they come with filters so the daily task of filling, dumping the grassy/dirty water, and refilling the blow up pool then waiting for it to warm up again would be over. We'll see what happens. 
What a ham...
